I don't normally post entire articles, but I am this time. From Yahoo! News
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Hendrick Motorsports Plane Crash Kills 10
11 minutes ago
By HANK KURZ Jr., AP Sports Writer
MARTINSVILLE, Va. - A plane owned by the Hendrick Motorsports organization crashed Sunday on its way to a NASCAR (news - web sites) race, killing all 10 people aboard, including the son, brother and two nieces of the owner of one of auto racing's most successful teams.
The Beech 200 took off from Concord, N.C., and crashed in the Bull Mountain area about seven miles west of Martinsville's Blue Ridge Regional Airport about 12:30 p.m., said Arlene Murray, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites).
A spokesman for a funeral home where the bodies were being taken said the dead included the four relatives of Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports.
The weather in the area was overcast at the time of the crash, according to Jan Jackson of the National Weather Service (news - web sites) in Blacksburg.
NTSB (news - web sites) spokesman Keith Holloway said investigators were on their way to the crash site, which was in rough terrain, but could not begin their examination until Monday.
Hendrick owns the teams of Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Terry Labonte and Brian Vickers, who competed in Sunday's Subway 500 in the Nextel Cup Series at Martinsville Speedway.
NASCAR learned of the plane's disappearance during the race but withheld the information from the Hendrick drivers until afterward, NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said. All the Hendrick drivers were summoned to the NASCAR hauler immediately after the race and Johnson, who won the race, was excused from Victory Lane.
"I was hoping I'd never hear this," Mark Martin, a driver for Roush Racing, told the Speed Network after the race. Martin's father, stepmother and half sister died in 1998 when a private plane his father was piloting crashed in Nevada.
"I just feel so bad it's unreal," said Martin, himself a pilot.
NASCAR has spoken with Rick Hendrick, NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said, adding that neither NASCAR nor the Hendrick organization would have further comment Sunday night.
Hendrick had been on a season-long celebration of its 20th anniversary in NASCAR's top series. The organization has won five of the series' top titles, three truck series titles, and one Busch series crown.
The team has over 100 Cup series wins, making Hendrick just the second team owner in NASCAR's modern era to surpass that mark.
Citing a list given to him by state police, Harry Litten, manager of Moody Funeral Service in Stuart, said the people aboard the plane were:
Ricky Hendrick, Rick Hendrick's son and a retired NASCAR driver; John Hendrick, Rick Hendrick's brother and president of the organization; Kimberly and Jennifer Hendrick, John Hendrick's twin daughters; Joe Jackson; Jeff Turner; Randy Dorton, the team's chief engine builder; Scott Latham, a pilot for NASCAR driver Tony Stewart; and pilots Dick Tracy and Liz Morrison.
Rick Hendrick had recently begun grooming Ricky Hendrick for a larger role with the company.
Ricky began his career driving a Busch car for his father, but retired in 2002 because of a shoulder injury suffered in a racing accident. His father then made him the owner of the Busch car Vickers drove to the series championship last season, and that Kyle Busch currently pilots.
Hendrick employs 460 workers at the Charlotte, N.C.-based Motorsports compound, which includes race shops and a 15,000-square-foot museum and team store.
The main sign outside the facility was covered with a gray tarp, and the gates were barricaded by deputies who allowed only employees through.
Some of the operation's employees gathered in small groups in the parking lot before going inside the building for about 90 minutes.
Several bouquets of flowers were placed on shrubs below a sign denoting "Papa Joe Hendrick Boulevard," which leads into the compound. Joe Hendrick Jr., who was Rick and John Hendrick's father and also was involved in the company, died in July.
"It's just very tough," said Donnie Floyd, who works on the team of Hendrick driver Terry Labonte. "We are like one big family."
Joe McGovern, a self-described racing fan from nearby Concord who said he knows the family, drove by to pay his respects.
"It's just devastating," he said. "This was just a great racing team and they are also such nice people."
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Associated Press writers Larry O'Dell and Sue Lindsey in Richmond and Jenna Fryer and Paul Nowell in Charlotte, N.C., contributed to this report.
